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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why has the analysis of Wright's work been impoverished according to Gilroy?
(a) Because Wright was so ambivalent in his writing.
(b) Because he has been misinterpreted.
(c) Because he was pigeon-holed as a sexist.
(d) Because he moved away from the U.S.

2. The second mode of double consciousness portrays blacks as what?
(a) Homeless.
(b) A prophecy of a homeland.
(c) A home unto himself.
(d) Wandering for a time.

3. What conflict was taking up too much space in the discussion of race in American literature according to Richard Wright?
(a) The conflict between owners and workers.
(b) The conflict between man and technology.
(c) The conflict between men and women.
(d) The conflict between young and old.

4. What does Gilroy say Richard Wright was ambivalent to?
(a) Assimilation.
(b) A closed racial community.
(c) Harmonious coexistence with dominant culture.
(d) Reconciliation with white culture.

5. How does Gilroy say that Richard Wright saw capitalism?
(a) As a destructive war.
(b) As a form of liberation theology.
(c) As a messianic religion.
(d) As a great liberator.

6. How does Gilroy say blacks are different from Jews?
(a) Blacks do not have a homeland to return to.
(b) Blacks do not believe that they have a covenant with their god.
(c) Blacks do not believe they all come from a common ancestor.
(d) Blacks were never systematically exterminated.

7. What kinds of frameworks was DuBois trying to look beyond?
(a) Essentialist.
(b) Pluralist.
(c) Relativist.
(d) Monotheist.

8. What does Gilroy say slavery tried to do to tradition?
(a) Compete with it.
(b) Co-opt it.
(c) Erase it.
(d) Rewrite it.

9. What does tradition signify in black culture according to Gilroy?
(a) A dynamic development of black culture.
(b) A world of opportunities in industrialism capitalism.
(c) A chance to invent tradition going forward.
(d) A history of reclaiming the self from slavery.

10. What heresy did Richard Wright commit, in Gilroy's account?
(a) Saying that history would repeat itself with slavery.
(b) Saying that blacks really were inferior to whites, in certain cases.
(c) Saying that blacks shared responsibility for their situation.
(d) Saying that black liberation was impossible, because the self is an endless war against itself.

11. What is the first period of black history, according to DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk?
(a) Acceptance of slavery.
(b) Surviving the leap to modernism.
(c) Liberation from slavery.
(d) Exile from home.

12. Who does Gilroy say DuBois was analyzing in The Souls of Black Folk?
(a) American blacks.
(b) African blacks.
(c) Post-slavery peoples.
(d) The black Atlantic.

13. How does Gilroy turn away from Richard Wright at the end of The Black Atlantic?
(a) He calls for a new pan-Africanism.
(b) He proposes that art is a solution to tension between races.
(c) He accepts that black experiences can resonate with non-blacks.
(d) He asks for a specifically American black culture.

14. What ideology was Richard Wright ambivalent to according to Gilroy?
(a) The ideology of personal emancipation.
(b) The ideology of self-reliance.
(c) The ideology of racial progress.
(d) The ideology of family.

15. How does Gilroy say DuBois arrived at his identity?
(a) By many routes.
(b) By choice.
(c) Accidentally.
(d) Straight from his roots.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did DuBois say was a central feature of slave culture?

2. What does Gilroy say we should accept as inescapable?

3. What does Gilroy say modernism relies on?

4. What does the concept of the diaspora help with in Gilroy's opinion?

5. What does Gilroy say Richard Wright was criticized for?

(see the answer keys)

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